Veteran politician and seven-time Tripura MLA Surajit Datta dies

Datta was 70. He left behind his wife and only daughter.

He was shifted to Kolkata in an air ambulance on Wednesday from a private hospital here in a critical condition. His mortal remains were brought from Kolkata on Thursday and taken to the Secretariat, Assembly, and BJP state offices for paying tribute before being taken to the house.

His last rite will be performed in the Battala crematorium in the evening, followed by a procession in the city. The government declared state mourning on Thursday due to the death of the legislator and cancelled all programs other than routine administrative functioning.

Surajit Datta was a popular leader of the Ramnagar area of the city, and except for the 2013 assembly elections, he had been elected from the constituency continuously since 1988.

Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, leader of the opposition from TIPRA Motha Animesh Debbarma, former Chief Ministers Samir Ranjan Barman, Manik Sarkar, and Biplab Kumar Deb, former Deputy Chief Minister, and veteran saffron leader Jishnu Dev Varma expressed condolences to the bereaved family.

Besides, Congress MLA Sudip Roybarman, CPM party chief and MLA Jitendra Chaudhury, BJP party state president Rajib Bhattacharjee, and Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha expressed grief over the death of Datta.

“Surajit Datta was a veteran politician and a colourful personality for the people of the state. His contribution to the people of the state and to politics will remain unfaded in history. We lost a guardian and pro-people leader,” Chief Minister Dr Saha said.

A tall political personality Datta was well-accepted among all the political parties and leaders for his humorous character and pro-people activities beyond political identity.

Datta was first elected as a Congress nominee from Ramnagar at the age of 34 in 1988 and became the minister for PWD. He was elected in subsequent assembly elections in 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008 with a Congress ticket.

In the 2013 election, Datta lost the seat to CPM nominee Ratan Das, but in 2018, he was re-elected as a BJP nominee. Since then, his health has started deteriorating, and underwent dialysis at least four times a month.

Despite being in critical health, the BJP had to offer him a ticket from Ramnagar in the last assembly elections held in February this year because of his popularity, and he won the seat by an impressive margin.